There’s a famous mural of Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vilnius, Lithuania….and someone has destroyed it.
- Based on a famous painting of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and President of East Germany Erich Honecker, the mural is meant to be a statement against authoritarianism.
- It was created in May by Mindaugas Bonanu, a local artist, and it went viral shortly thereafter.
- It shows the pair embracing passionately, which is very provocative to some. To others, it is an important symbol of defiance and liberty.
- But now, it has been vandalized. Whomever was responsible for the vandalism painted over the faces of Trump and Putin with white paint, in an attempt to censor the painting.
- Whether the vandal was against the symbolism or the visual expression is unclear.
- Dominykas Čečkauskas, the owner of the barbecue restaurant called Keulė Rūkė where it is painted doesn’t see it as mere vandalism, but as “a terrorising attack on freedom of speech in Lithuania.”
- The owner says it won’t be censored for long and will be repainted.
Last night iconic #graffiti was destroyed. #trumpkissingputin #trump #putin #vilnius #art #politics pic.twitter.com/T82QJ5jY5i
— Egle Adomynaite (@EgleA) August 12, 2016
The two brash leaders are notorious fans of each other. Here are a few examples:
- Putin has referred to Trump as “brilliant.” And in turn, Trump has expressed admiration for Putin’s leadership before.
- In a speech recently, Trump basically said that he hopes that Russia would commit espionage against the United States by retrieving Clinton’s 33,000 missing emails, to make her look bad in the election.
- It’s also possible that a recent Russian cyber-attack on DNC emails was meant to pave the way for Trump into the White House.
- Trump also wants to ally with Russia to defeat ISIS. He said, “Russia wants to get rid of ISIS. We want to get rid of ISIS. Maybe let Russia do it. Let them get rid of ISIS. What the hell do we care?”
Check out another intriguing piece of political artwork in our previous article here: You won’t believe this mural of Hillary Clinton!